Becoming a Spiritual House and Holy Priesthood

And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by
men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as
living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: "Behold I
lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who
believes in Him shall not be disappointed." This precious value,
then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, "The
stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner
stone," and, "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense"; for they
stumble because they are disobedient to the word and to this doom
they were also appointed.

As I sought the mind of the Lord about what we as a people would
need from God's Word this morning, it seemed to me that the very
next passage scheduled in 1 Peter is precisely what we need. It is
not the only thing we need. But we do need it. And we need it
badly. It is a Word about how to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God. We will focus on verses 4–5.

How Spiritual Sacrifices Become Acceptable to God

Notice, in these verses, six steps in the way God gets spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to him.

1. Jesus Christ, the Living Stone

First, in verse 4, there is Jesus Christ the living Stone.
Peter calls him a stone because of prophecies in the Old Testament:
"Behold I am laying in Zion a stone" (Isaiah 28:16). "The stone
which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner"
(Psalm 118:22). We'll come back to this.

2. Those Longing for Him Come to Him

Second, in verse 4 those who have tasted the kindness of the
Lord (recall verse 3 from three weeks ago)—those who have
tasted that the Lord is kind and now long for him the way a baby
longs for milk—they now (in verse 4) come to him: "And
coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice [=chosen] and precious in the sight of God."

3. We Are Shaped into Living Stones

Third, the result of this coming to him is that we are shaped
into living stones for use in a spiritual building. Verse 5: "You
also as living stones are being built." Contact with the Living
Stone makes us alive and fits us for our place in his architectural
plan.

4. We Are Built into a Spiritual House

Fourth, when we come to the living stone and are shaped into
living stones ourselves, we are built into a "spiritual house."
Christ is the builder here. He builds individual Christians into a
spiritual temple. It's spiritual because it houses the Holy Spirit.
"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of
God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). That's a reference to the local
church, not to individuals in this context.

What we see so far is that God lays this stone, Jesus Christ, in
Zion, that is, in Jerusalem, and men reject it—crucify
him—but God has chosen this stone and regards him as
infinitely precious, and raises him from the dead and makes him an
ever-living stone, and gives him the place of highest honor at the
head of the corner. All of this to the end that Christ might gather
a people who would themselves be alive like him and would make a
temple, a church—an eternal dwelling place for the Spirit of
God.

5. We Are a Holy Priesthood

Fifth, the greatness of the reality forces the imagery to
break down. Not only are we living stones being built into a
spiritual house for God's habitation, we are also a "holy
priesthood." In other words, we are not merely the passive building
where God dwells; we are also the active participants in worship.
And not just participants, but a special kind of participant, the
priests. All of you. This is the great teaching about the
"priesthood of all believers."

We all—lay people and vocational elders—are the
priests of this new spiritual house, and our privilege now as
priests is to draw near to God with spiritual sacrifices. The
priests brought the sacrifices into the tabernacle in the Old
Testament. But now that tabernacle is replaced by the Christian
church. The atoning altar is replaced by Jesus Christ and his shed
blood. And the priests are replaced by you, those who believe in
Christ.

6. Spiritual Sacrifices Are Offered to God Through Christ

Sixth, the goal of all this is that spiritual sacrifices
would be offered which are acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ.

Make sure Jesus gets his due right here. God's aim is that we
offer him spiritual sacrifices (we'll talk about what that is in a
minute). And we can only do that "through Jesus Christ." Jesus is
the Living Stone. Everything hangs on our coming to the Living
Stone. If we don't come to Jesus, the Living Stone, then we don't
have life and we are not built into a spiritual house, and we do
not become a holy priesthood, and we will not offer spiritual
sacrifices. It all hangs on Jesus and connecting with
Jesus—coming to Jesus. That's why Peter ends verse 5 with the
words "to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ."

Jesus Is Infinitely Precious

This should cause us to love Jesus with all our hearts. He is
the only way to God. He is the only way to be alive forever. He is
the only way to be a dwelling for God. He is the only way we can do
anything acceptable to God. This is why verse 7 says that he is
precious, costly to us who believe. Yes, infinitely precious. There
is no greater value in the universe than Jesus. He means more to us
than anything or anybody.

Just think of all the people around the world who know there is
a God. Nature declares his glory and their own consciences tell
them it must be so. But they don't know how to do anything fully
acceptable to this God—because they don't know Jesus. They
try rituals and disciplines and sacrifices and vows and relics and
virtues—but all in vain. Because God says (at the end of
verse 5) the sacrifices that are acceptable to him are acceptable
"through Jesus Christ." Not through human effort or human merit or
human achievement. But "through Jesus Christ."

That's why Paul said in Romans 15:18, "I will not presume to
speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through
me."

The preciousness of Christ to our hearts is this: through him we
know God and come to God and experience the presence of God and
offer acceptable sacrifices to God. Without him all is distance and
darkness and wrath. Christ is precious, very precious.

What Are These Spiritual Sacrifices?

Now let's walk backward through some of these six steps and take
another look at them.

What are these spiritual sacrifices that we offer to God through
Jesus Christ (v. 5b). If that's the goal of everything else, it
must be very important. What is it?

Bodies

In Romans 12:1 Paul says that we are to present our bodies as
living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God which is your
spiritual service of worship. That means, I think, that everything
you do with your body is to be done as an act of worship to God.
Whether you eat or drink or hammer nails or drive a car or make a
meal or program a computer or read a book or shoot a basketball or
mend a shirt—whatever you do with your body, do to the glory
of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Then it is your spiritual service of
worship.

Praise and Thanks

It might include singing or speaking words of praise as in
Hebrews 13:15, "Continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God,
that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name." So the
spiritual sacrifices are the praises and thanks of God's people
alone and in group worship.

Acts of Love

Or it might include acts of love like giving and sharing. For
example, in Philippians 4:18 Paul receives gifts of support from
the Philippian church and says, "I received from Epaphroditus what
you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice,
well-pleasing to God." And in Hebrews 13:16 it says, "Do not
neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is
pleased."

What We Do From, Through, and For Christ

What then are spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ? They are the deeds you do, the words you speak, the
songs you sing—when you do them spiritually. That is, when
you do them in reliance on the power of the Spirit, according to
the will of the Spirit, and for a manifestation of the
Spirit—which is a manifestation of Christ.

What We Should Ask About Our Worship

This is clearly a word to us about our worship here at
Bethlehem. Is it spiritual? Are the sacrifices we offer spiritual
sacrifices? Are we leaders in worship spiritual people? Do we sing
in the power of the Spirit, and according to the will of the
Spirit, and as a manifestation of the Spirit of Christ? Do our
instrumentalists play their instruments in the power of the Spirit,
according to the will of the Spirit, and as a manifestation of the
Spirit of Christ? Do I preach in reliance on the power of the
Spirit, according to the will of the Spirit, and as a manifestation
of the Spirit of Christ?

Is our worship spiritual? If it is not, it is not acceptable to
God. If it is, he will accept it, not because it's perfect—it
never will be in this age—much less because it's refined or
well-crafted, but because it comes "through Jesus Christ."
Spiritual sacrifices are sacrifices from Christ and through Christ
and for Christ. They get their power from the Spirit of Christ,
they get their content from the Word of Christ, and they have their
goal in the glory of Christ. And they flow only from a heart
devoted to his power and his Word and his glory. And that is the
only kind of worship God accepts.

Spiritual Sacrifices Offered by a Holy Priesthood

The second step in moving backward through the six steps is that
these spiritual sacrifices are offered by a holy priesthood. That's
not the pastoral staff, that's not the elders, that's not the
choir; it's you the people. Look at verse 9: "You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood." This means that you all have access to God
through Jesus Christ. You do not take your sacrifice to the priest
and watch while he takes it to the altar or to the tent of meeting
with God. You all are called by God to approach the altar and the
throne, and to make your own personal sacrifice in personal life
and in corporate worship.

And therefore you must be holy (1:15). You must be set apart for
God. Cleansed by the blood of Christ through faith, and dedicated
to relentless and ruthless opposition to sin in your life. If your
hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin,
gouge it out. You are a priest to God. You are a part of a worship
team, called "the holy priesthood." Without this God-wrought
holiness we do not offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.

The Holy Priesthood Is Also a Spiritual House

Third, this holy priesthood is also a "spiritual house." You are
all living stones built by God into a spiritual house, that is, a
temple made for the presence of a holy God. Listen to the way Paul
said this in Ephesians 2:19–22

You are . . . of God's household, . . . Christ Jesus Himself
being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted
together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you
also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the
Spirit.

The main thing here is that we as a church are meant by Christ
to be a corporate dwelling of God in the Spirit. It's true that
each of us is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). But
there is more of God to be known and enjoyed than anyone can know
in isolation. We are being fitted together, Paul says, for a temple
and for a dwelling of God by his Spirit. There is a presence and
power and manifestation of the Spirit of God meant to be known in
this gathering of worship that we do not know at any other time in
isolation.

We are not just isolated living stones. We are, verse 5 says,
being built (by Christ—"I will build my church") as a
spiritual house. The stones are meant to so fit together in this
house called Bethlehem that something whole, something more than a
collection of individuals comes into being—a temple, a
dwelling of God by his Spirit.

And O how jealous I am to see that happen more than it ever
has.

How Are We Being Built into a Spiritual House?

And to that end let me just return to the strategy Peter focuses
on for this to happen. He says in verse 4, "And coming to Him
[Christ] as to a living stone, rejected by men, but chosen and
precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being
built." How are we being built into this spiritual house? By coming
to Christ.

Now be careful here. This is not a reference to
conversion—that initial coming to Christ, though that it
awesomely important and I pray some may come this morning for the
first time. It is a reference to daily, hour-by-hour drawing near
to Christ as a strong, living Person.

Notice, verse 4 flows out of verse 3 and refers back to it with
the word "him." Verse 4: "Coming to HIM"—to whom? To the one
whose kindness you have tasted—how good it is. This helps us
get a good handle on what "coming to Christ" means. Verse 3 is an
incentive in both directions. It motivates verse 2 and it motivates
verse 4.

If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord—then (v. 2)
long for the Word of Christ the way a baby longs for milk. If you
have tasted the kindness of the Lord—then (v. 4) come to
Christ.

Coming to Christ is what you do when you long for his Word the
way a baby longs for milk, and, longing for it, come to it and feed
on it and find Christ in it. "They feast on the abundance of Thy
house and Thou givest them drink from the river of Thy delights"
(Psalm 36:8).

If we are going to be a spiritual temple for God's presence, and
if we are going to be a holy priesthood, and if we are going to
offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, then we must day-by-day, hour-by-hour come to Christ. We must taste his kindness by
feeding on his Word—his promises, his commands, his
teachings, his warnings—until we are so filled with him that
his Word will dwell among us richly as we teach and admonish one
anther with thankfulness in our hearts to God.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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